School Policy Targets Childhood Obesity

With obesity becoming an increasingly apparent problem in schools, the N.C. State Board of Education approved last week recommendations for weekly exercise for K-12 students.

The state already mandates time for health education and physical activity in the school week, but at a time when test scores are determining school funding, enforcement of this policy is difficult.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools have been trying to integrate health issues into the curriculum despite limitations in time during the school day.

"I support and understand the motivation behind the proposal, but there are logistical issues surrounding that proposal," said Neil Pedersen, superintendent of Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools.

The state board did not mandate its recommended amount of weekly exercise -- 150 minutes for elementary school children and 225 minutes for high school students -- but it did pass some requirements as parts of the approved policy.

The requirements will go into effect in the 2006-07 school year. They include the formation of a school health council and coordinated school health programs.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools already have a school health council and a coordinated school health program in place.

Susan Spalt, the school system's health coordinator, said the council and the health program have been in place for more than 25 years.

The correlation between physical and health education and learning ability has grown in prominence as a major issue in education.

"Our school district really does support (the board's recommendations) because exercise during the day and exercise during the week really helps kids learn," Spalt said.

In a 3,000-person study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, 14 percent of students were at risk of being obese with another 12.9 percent being classified as obese.

Exercise is not the only factor in creating a healthy student but must be combined with a well-balanced diet, officials said.

To prevent obesity in the district, the school system implemented a nutrition-based menu for elementary, middle and high school students.

Mark Rusin, food service director for the school system, said that workers set the weighted average of calories in the menu for the week so that no more than 30 percent of the calories are from fat.

The weighted average is computed by taking the amount of calories in the menu each day and averaging them for the week. Workers then take the average and the volume of food they sell and compute the weighted average.

Nationwide, many officials cited vending machines as a cause for students not eating healthy.

But local schools usually contain a wide variety of vending machines, some of which provide juice and healthy foods and some of which provide fattening snacks.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools have vending machines, but only those machines approved by food services are turned on during the eating period, Rusin said. There are no vending machines in elementary schools.

The use of vending machines coupled with not exercising regularly does not bode well for the health of students. "It's a real recipe for disaster," Spalt said.

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.